


Epics whispered, not sung

by booleanWildcard



Category: Naruto
Genre: (I'd eat it tho), (even if kakashi has some trouble with the f-word), Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Family Feels, Family of Choice, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slice of Life, Some Fluff, Some angst, Sort of kind of Modern AU but only incidentally, Supportive Relationships, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Umino Iruka, Transformation, Worldbuilding, a cat (arguably), bamf iruka, betaed by myself so i'm sorry, confusion about the taxonomy of baked goods and related sweets, dad! Iruka, enthusiastic use of the word flesh, i think, immortals hiding among humans, mythology AU, oblique worldbuilding, transmasc character, transmasc iruka, unholy experimentation with eggplants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:22:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26294092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booleanWildcard/pseuds/booleanWildcard
Summary: It stands to reason that the day Naruto Comes Down From The Mountain, Iruka and Kakashi should be the ones to follow.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 13
Kudos: 55
Collections: Umino Undercover





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enby0angel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enby0angel/gifts).



> (I'm gonna add my usual shit here once it's all edited, but this fic is slightly overdue, so.)
> 
> I was a backup in the Umino Hours server's most recent exchange, with the theme of Undercover. :3 Unfortunately, someone had to drop out of the event, which meant I got the pleasure of writing for [Enby0Angel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enby0angel/pseuds/enby0angel). Enby, it has been a great pleasure to write for you. Your tropes list is everything i like. <3
> 
>  **A note on format** : AFAIC, this fic is a oneshot, and it was written as a oneshot. However, there _is_ part of this that thematically deals with gender dysphoria, and because I recognize a viewer may want to skip that scene, I'll be posting it on its own, with a warning in the chapter title. (Breaking the fic into thematic chunks was a more elegant way of handling that, then uploading two versions where one had that scene clipped out of it. )
> 
> many thanks to my bravery buddy [Menecio,](https://archiveofourown.org/users/menecio/pseuds/menecio) who helped me here, as many other times, sort myself out. They also write beautifully, so please check them out!  
>    
> _The M tag may be excessive, but I list it as that to be safe._  
>  my normal disclaimers:  
> \- I am extremely grateful to people who write and have written fic for many years; it has helped me out of some dark places. I follow in the footsteps of giants. <3 plz continue writing and making work available.  
> \- nothing i do is particularly creative or original. if you see an idea in here that you like, please feel free to it. if you think i did this horribly and think you can do better, please do. if you think this is great and you want to work with some of the idaes yourself or something, have at. If you just wanna remix this. in the end, it all makes for good fic and i like to read good fic.  
> \- i have serious social anxiety and have trouble responding to comments. Please do not feel obligated to comment, fuck knows i know the feeling. IF you want to comment, i do read them and i love them, even if i am often unable to reply-- so let this be a very sincere thank you.  
> (and also, i love getting recommendations of other fics or books to read or media to consume, so if you want to comment with that, I shall definitely treat that as a reward unto itself)
> 
> Also just gonna give myself a cookie because i finished this in 9 days, which is lightning fast for me.

It stands to reason that the day Naruto Comes Down From The Mountain, Iruka and Kakashi should be the ones to follow.

\--

Iruka almost misses the news; when he learns about the Hokage’s decision, he is incandescent with rage. Brilliant and beautiful and glittering, he gathers that rage around him like wings and gives himself to action, reacting automatically with that unspoken trust he always places so easily in his own intuition. (Kakashi finds this confidence inexplicable and entrancing; despite _what_ they are, Kakashi’s never found it easy to give himself to Faith of any kind, but to Iruka’s intuition he must make that concession. Iruka is _very rarely_ off the mark.)

Kakashi can feel the shift in his lover’s mood halfway across the Mountain, the same way he can feel the static that begins to build around nascent storm clouds-- a subtle little transition in the air, a brief crackle of feeling, all potential seeking kinetic manifestation.

(It makes him uncomfortable, and twice so, because he is on duty and cannot leave the Hokage’s side to offer comfort to his lover, to mollify and soothe.)

Kakashi half expects to see Iruka flying up the dusty corridors of the Hokage’s tower, every inch of him displaying that vengeful Aspect that the mortals sometimes invoke him for-- but he doesn’t; Iruka keeps his distance, brooding and far away, and that’s so much worse because it means that Iruka has interpreted this as a double betrayal, has assumed that Kakashi _knew._

It’s not an unreasonable assumption, Kakashi thinks-- Kakashi is Hiruzen’s ever-loyal Hound, his Right Hand, his Immortal Guardian and one of the Watchers with Indefatigable Eyes; there is relatively little that Hiruzen does outside of Kakashi’s awareness.

But there are some things Kakashi doesn’t know about, and Hiruzen’s decision to exile his adopted son’s son-- a boy he’d formally recognized and treated as a grandson-- is one such mystery. Kakashi had felt trepidation when he’d first seen Raven approaching the Hokage’s chamber with the bright orange boy in tow, and that trepidation had only grown at the Hokage’s subsequent request that Kakashi leave the room to grant them privacy. Naruto had gone shortly thereafter, a flash of orange and projected _anxiety-sorrow_ , and Hiruzen had refused to answer the question that Kakashi only then dared ask with his eyes. Kakashi’d had to learn about Naruto’s exile through the same means as Iruka (though perhaps his rumors were were close enough to the source as to not yet have grown too salacious or strange for their traveling).

Not that Iruka could’ve known about Kakashi’s exclusion from the room-- and not that Kakashi could’ve even expected him to, given how young and fragile and delicate this thing between them is. (Only a few centuries-- not quite long enough for someone as notoriously aloof and independent as Kakashi to demonstrate the _depths_ of the love that he feels for Iruka, to express the remarkable _calmness_ he experiences in the other’s presence.).

There isn’t really _time_ on the mountain (not as it is linearly understood), but there is a span between the moment that Kakashi feels the news hit Iruka and the moment Kakashi leaves the Hokage tower-- a span that _drags_ even to the perceptions of a timeless immortal, heavy with nauseous anticipation.

But the moment does come: Hiruzen gives him a long penetrating stare from across his desk, and then says, “You are dismissed, Hound. Take all the time you need. Learn Well, and Thoroughly.” Kakashi is all but out the door by time Hiruzen speaks his title; he doesn’t encode the rest of the statement until much later, the end hiding itself away in his memories by means of Hiruzen’s deliberative intonation.

\--

There is no time for other thought; Iruka is moving, and quickly, and Kakashi doesn’t want to lose this thing he’s found (this _family_ , though he can’t quite yet call it comfortably by that name.) It is anxiety that propels him forward-- but one very different to the version he already knows well, a brittle and ambiguous nervousness that always precedes combat, all sallow and disquiet. Thankfully, Kakashi is fast-- has always been very fast-- and so he catches up with his lover on the outskirts of the town, right before the first of several sacred doorways that bring The Mountain back down to the earth.

“Iruka!” he shouts to get the other’s attention, and _allows_ a note of breathlessness to enter his voice (even he can’t quite name its origin, whether it’s from the running or the fear). Iruka slows, looks like he isn’t sure whether he intends to stop, or whether he intends to proceed through that doorway and leave Kakashi behind for a lifetime, to twist alone inside that terrible immortal half-awareness of time. But Iruka does stop, and Kakashi finds himself once again breathless, this time with relief.

“What do you want.” Iruka’s voice is carefully neutral, standoffish, and that strikes worse than anger or coldness or bitterness or whatever else Kakashi had anticipated receiving. It momentarily knocks him off what little plan he’d had in running here-- but Kakashi has always been adaptable, it’s part of why he’s called _Hound_ , and so he regroups quickly and finds his track again, does what he needs to do to keep his pack together. 

“If you go,” Kakashi says carefully, nodding to the doorway-- because Iruka is _young_ , as far as immortals go, and may not know all these old secrets, these Rules, “You have to stay there. On the mortal side.” His words are disjointed, hard to summon-- he’s never been terribly verbose, always prone to hiding beneath a veneer of sarcasm and misdirection-- but this situation’s deadly serious, and not the kind that benefits from those normal tactics. “You’ll have to stay there as long as he does, and you’ll have to hide. The mortals can’t know what you are.” The anxiety takes his tongue then, gives his next words more bite than he strictly intends them to carry. “Do you even have a plan?”

This is the wrong thing to say, and he knows it as soon as the words are out of his mouth-- can see it in the way that Iruka straightens, beautiful brown eyes shuttering and growing cold. Of course, Kakashi berates himself internally, _that phrase_ coming from the infamous tactician Kakashi, whose Auspices specifically include strategy and the making of plans-- _of course_ that would land poorly, _fuck fuck fuck--_

“I’ll figure it out.” Iruka answers evasively, tone still closed off, but now with that slight hint of rumbling edge that always warns of danger-- that if Kakashi presses this too hard, it will not end well for him, because Iruka has no problem defending his boundaries and positions from an entity much more experienced than he is. (It’s one of the things Kakashi loves-- and, separately, admires-- about him). “Are you here to try to stop me?” his voice is all challenge and dark promise: _I’d like to see you try._

Kakashi is always struck by the mild irony of his Auspices at moments like this-- he may be called upon for guidance by mortals who admire his cunning intellect, but those mortals have never seen him argue with Iruka, because all careful calculation abandons him: he is always reeling, desperately seeking purchase while he tries to figure out how best to proceed; these are pitched battles that only happen with words, not the physical weaponry in whose use he is so well trained.

Kakashi always defaults to honesty-- and he’s chosen well, because it’s usually honesty that brings them back together (reunion with Iruka is the outcome he’d always prefer, to other forms of victory).

“I’m going to come with you.” Kakashi responds without hesitation, before his brain can catch up to his mouth (and before the part of him that thinks in the language of battle can remind him of the importance of secrecy and hiding). “If-- you’ll accept my company.”

And, because love _isn’t actually_ a battle, that’s exactly the thing that Iruka needed to hear; the younger entity relaxes, nods, lowers his defenses, offers Kakashi a place at his side and the ounce of forgiveness that Kakashi needs to fix some of Iruka’s hurts and let Iruka realize that the news of Naruto’s exile has come as a painful surprise to him, too.

Kakashi never says the word ‘family’-- has not spoken that word in years-- but Iruka hears it anyway, hidden in the interstices of his diction.


	2. CW for dysphoria

Epiphany is harrowing.

The people of Konoha, hidden High Up On The Mountain, have a different kind of flesh-- they _do_ still have bodies, and so they feel and eat and experience the world sensually, but those bodies are made from a stuff more protean and mercurial than that the mortals know. The difference is neither an effect of chaos nor of lawless magic-- though it is often mistaken for both-- the Mountain _does have_ Rules, old Rules, complex and esoteric, stranger than the rigorous dicta of physics, but no less potent. It is well known, for example, that those newly claimed as immortal often find the transition to spirit-flesh violently consumptive and vertiginous.

But the shift back is worse. No matter how many times you’ve done it before, it is _always_ worse.

Kakashi has made that transition more times than he can count-- such is the life of an entity called upon during battle and strife, whose interventions must thus often be physical. He is an old hand at Epiphanous Manifestation, he understands the process, knows how to brace against that weird sucking sensation associated with spiritflesh changing into blood and bone and viscera. He knows to wear a body without letting its limits define him, how to balance everything he Is against everything he must also Now Be, temporarily. 

Kakashi knows how to make himself subtle _without_ making himself small.

But Iruka is less experienced here-- has only done this once, to Kakashi’s knowledge, and with bad results. Worse, the usual advice does little to help Iruka, because Iruka problem is **_not_** the horrifyingly carnate obscenity of oncemore occupying corporeal flesh-- no, where Iruka runs aground are the Rules, in all of their complex and esoteric _inflexibility_ , which impose upon him a very _specific_ inflection of horrifyingly carnate obscenity.

When one Manifests, one does so in a body close to that which they occupied as a mortal. The why is unclear-- there are innumerable contemporary theories to which Kakashi tries to pay very little attention (and over which the more scholarly set On The Mountain like lose their shit, for hours, during meetings with the Hokage, where Kakashi _has_ to listen to them)-- and it’s probably also irrelevant.What’s important is **_that_** it happens,that one’s newly Manifested corporeal flesh resembles their original mortal body.Immortals attempting Manifestation are thus encouraged to _use_ that resemblance as something like a lodestone: to ground themselves in the familiarity of a body that had once been their own, to cling to that knowledge as they try to figure out what it means to occupy _that body_ again. The familiarity, for most, is a _relief._

But Iruka’s body had never been a relief to him, back when he’d been mortal: he’d been born into flesh whose characteristics didn’t match who and what he actually was, flesh with which he’d never identified, flesh that was frequently misunderstood by the mortals around him. For Iruka, focusing on memories of that mortal body could never provide relief-- could only exacerbate everything about Manifestation that was already overwhelming: the press of alien sensory data generated by newly corporeal flesh, the arbitrary manifestations [and lack thereof] of intrinsic self-knowledge writ unto that flesh, and the equally alien social constructs that governed how said flesh was understood by the mortals who presumptuously assumed a right _know_ what _any_ flesh means.

Iruka, when Manifesting, would find himself groundless-- unmoored, floundering, terrified, and horribly alone-- and that was a dangerous place for an immortal to be; it was far too easy to forget who and what you were, in that position, to lose connection with your Aspects and your magic, to become a ravening hungry ghost without either name or people.

But this time Iruka _isn’t_ alone-- Kakashi is at his side-- Kakashi who has enough practice at this for both of them, who pushes as quickly as he can through the imposition of his own disorienting corporeality, who can lead the way through these treacherous waters for both of them.

And good thing, too, because they are halfway Down The Mountain when the shift takes hold, and the sensation of chill Olympic air on flesh that _can actually feel it--_ that no longer shapes itself according to the whims of Iruka’s fiercely stubborn and assiduous will-- brings Iruka crashing to his knees.

Kakashi is at his side immediately, ready to ground unfamiliar flesh in cherished and familiar sensation, to remind Iruka that Kakashi knows him and loves him in any corporeal guise-- that a feature of _home_ is the people who _know_ you, as close as possible to how you know yourself, _not_ the way strangers misinterpret your flesh.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter does briefly describe a very mild panic attack.
> 
> also, i feel compelled to note that this I did do a little structural experimentation with this story, and as with any experimentation, it may not have worked or may have generated a less than elegant story. (and its worth noting that one probably shouldn't have expectations of me re: quality and stuff.) 
> 
> Anyway, this is the point at which I started making that a little more active.

Kakashi forgets how quickly time passes on the mortal side; the brevity is functionally a trope to those Of The Mountain, but usually the kind from which jokes are made-- this feels more like the kind that forces confrontation with the truth of its messy visceral actuality, especially when one must again experience it firsthand. Kakashi doesn’t regret that he and Iruka take their time reacclimating to new bodies on the way down to this place: the mortal world is louder and brighter and busier than he remembers, densely populated and spread rhizomatically across a network of streets he’s never actually known-- not as they are now.

Nevertheless, he leads them, pulled along the path by his own sense-memory of what the world used to be, Iruka close on his heels and staring around them with fascination writ large in wide brown eyes. (This is something else Kakashi loves and admires about Iruka: Kakashi finds the rapid changes of the human world somewhere between dizzying and obnoxious, and had worried that they would compound Iruka’s corporeal dysphoria-- but no, his lover is happily distracted by all the _possibility_ , wants to investigate literally everything, and has to keep dragging himself back to Kakashi’s side whenever he strays too far. _This_ is Naruto’s adoptive father, Kakashi thinks, this man who looks at the chaos around them and wears a more subtle version of Naruto’s bright ebullience on his face.)

Iruka is so distracted that he doesn’t think to ask where they’re going until they arrive: two huge rusted iron gates in a concrete wall, old fashioned and worn, discordant against the flashy young buildings that otherwise populate the small urban square around them. “Where is this?” Iruka asks, as Kakashi makes a motion with his hand against the door that is more stroke than push; it opens at his will, silent despite the rusted hinges.

“It _was_ my familial estate, in the days of my father.” Kakashi says, and means _when I was mortal._ He’s distracted, stepping inside the grounds with Iruka, who is suddenly very hesitant-- everyone in Konoha knows that Kakashi _doesn’t talk about_ his time as a mortal, only that he had no family to leave behind-- and thus Iruka isn’t quite certain whether or not this is an intrusion. Kakashi isn’t upset, though-- his distraction is appraisal, as he checks the condition of a place as timeless as he is, against the weight of centuries neither of them usually feel. “If I’m right--” Kakashi begins, walks briskly to a small shed with a frown, and slides the door across its threshold-- “Oh, good, I’m not entirely forgotten then.” He turns to Iruka, gesturing behind him at the contents of the building; it’s a treasury-- not an uncommon feature in larger urban temples, where donations from pilgrimage are stored-- and this one is well-stocked and undisturbed.

Iruka is awestruck-- he’d been Claimed well after the era when temples and treasuries were common expressions of mortal piety, and has never known a time of bustling pilgrimage and grandiosity enough to draw international crowds. Kakashi intends all of this-- coming here-- to be an implicit offer of his familial estate for their use, but Iruka has run aground slightly on the new knowledge, and Kakashi is uncertain as to how the gesture’s been received, “I thought we’d need somewhere to stay.” he prompts, gently.

Iruka nods numbly, and moves to sit heavily on the porch, head in his hands-- something about the treasury’s tacit history has abruptly snapped the reality of their situation into sharp relief, collapsing the implications of everything they’re doing and everything it means into a palpable heaviness that breaks across his body.“I- Thank you.” He says, both sincere and a little lost, and makes room as Kakashi takes the spot beside him and slings an arm comfortingly over his shoulder. He leans into Kakashi, buries his head in Kakashi’s chest and tries to slow breathing that has become heartbeat fast; when he speaks, his voice is just as rapid, pulling the words into a single turbulent string: “I just realized- I don’t know what I was thinking, to do this, to find and help Naruto earn his way back-- I don’t even know where he is, I have no way to find him! I don’t know how I thought I could do this alone.”

Iruka’s always been the emotive one, but they know each other well, trust each other, and so Iruka allows himself to be drawn into Kakashi’s lap; it’s as a comfort more effective and eloquent than anything kakashi could otherwise offer verbally.

Nevertheless, Kakashi tries. He looks over the top of Iruka’s dark brown ponytail (which smells like human hair, _because it is_ ), across the sprawling lawn and unkempt gardens of the estate’s permanent spring, to eight canine statues lining the main walkway he’d eschewed on the way to the treasury-- eight canine statues that are starting to move, slowly and sluggishly, yawning and stretching and changing shape and shaking themselves to throw off the stony embrace of a long sleep.

Kakashi kisses the top of Iruka’s head and says, “You don’t have to.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's not as tight as i want it-- what i consider loose or that i get embarrassed about in my writing is shit that's not intentional, and there's a few areas in here that aren't operating rhythmically teh way i want? so i may tweak it later, but heads up.

Iruka’s always been the adaptable one, and it is no different now.

Their reactions to the human world continue in the vein of their first impressions: it’s Iruka who is far more comfortable here, for all he dislikes and rejects the constraints of the body he must wear. He wastes no time in searching for Naruto, of course, but neither does the obvious fervor of that mission overwhelm his joy at each new discovery.

(Kakashi mostly finds this world tiresome, but he takes pleasure in watching Iruka, loves to see his partner happy-- and he does concede that Iruka has a point, with some of things out of bakeries.)

\--

Kakashi's first exposure to Mochi and Macarons are together-- at the same time-- which is a deeply surreal experience.

They’re _almost_ same thing-- both finger-snack sized cookie-adjascent goo-filled sweets with a differently-textured external casing (Kakashi’s still not quite solid on the taxonomy of baked goods; the whole thing strikes him as being extremely arbitrary, but, for the sake of Peace In His House, he generally refrains from voicing that particular observation)-- but they’re also very different experiences. Both Mochi and Macarons are sweet and brightly colored and come in many fascinating flavors, but Mochi are squishy and seem like they should be upsetting to eat (they’re not, they’re weirdly satisfying) and Macarons have a bit of nice soft crunch-- the point is, it’s a fascinating sensory experience that Kakashi was totally unprepared for.

Iruka hadn’t meant for these two things to be presented to Kakashi as a singular event, though-- they were just both something he’d been craving; thus, whatever is generating the concern behind Iruka’s amused observation of Kakashi _isn’t_ his fascinated inquest into the taxonomy and texture of sweets.

“Naruto was born immortal.” Iruka says, apropos of nothing, wearing the pensive expression that indicates they’re about to discuss an Important Topic, one that he’s been privately working his way through for some time. Kakashi drags his attention away from a thorough internal analysis of the different ways that mochi filling and macaron filling stick to the teeth, puts the Macaron he’s holding down, and focuses his attention completely on his partner. “So he’s never done this before.” Iruka gestures vaguely, and clarifies (at Kakashi’s confusion) “This. Been mortal. Have a flesh body.”

“The dogs can sense him.” Kakashi soothes, guessing at the source of Iruka’s concern, “And Pakkun says his chakra is bright and strong, so he’s taking to the body fine.” (Privately, Kakashi doubts that Naruto would’ve had a fraction of the trouble associated with his and Iruka’s ownjourney to this realm-- with the amount of energy that kid had in Konoha, he’s pretty sure Naruto’s body would be more likely to get lost in him and forget what it was, not the other way around.)

Iruka nods, an abbreviated motion indicative of lingering guilt, self-reproach for not _being there with Narut_ o in the moments of awful transition-- not that Iruka’d’ve been able to offer much help, lost as he’d been in his own struggle with tangibility at the time. Kakashi opens his mouth to respond automatically-- this is a topic of conversation they return to regularly, and is likely to remain so for years to come-but Iruka cuts him off by gesturing to a different concern. “Do you think he even wants help?” Iruka asks, quickly, “This is his first experience of independence; What if we find him and he sends us away.”

Kakashi looks at his partner for a long moment; he’s prepared to provide comfort, but this is not one of the questions he’d been anticipating, and he can’t square that possibility with anything he knows of either Naruto or Iruka, much less their relationship. But Iruka’s very obviously genuine in his fears-- this is the sort of thing Kakashi knows he nurses when he feels helpless and uncertain, that burrows in the back of his mind when he perceives himself to be failing his own unbelievably high standards.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Kakashi tells him, and reaches over to squeeze his hand. “I really don’t.”

\--

There is almost no conversation the day they discover ice cream, because they’re both too busy putting it in their mouths to talk. (Ice cream is probably Kakashi’s favorite-- less for the flavor than the edible sensation of _cold,_ usurped from the Auspices of Winter and all the more hubristic for its transience).  
  
 _Almost_ no conversation, because Iruka is still Iruka-- “I fucking missed this.” he says through his spoon, blissfully, “This is better than ambrosia.”

Kakashi doesn’t disagree, but considers the statement as he lets some of it melt on his tongue. “Blasphemy,” he answers, and tries to figure out what in any world a ‘blue raspberry' is.

“We can’t blaspheme against ourselves~” Iruka responds cheerfully, unfazed, before pausing to reflect on the potential implications of their temporary mortality. “I think?”

\--

They clear up a lingering misunderstanding over cake that is both tangy and sweet and tastes like “almost chocolate” (Kakashi’s not sure that “almost chocolate” counts as a flavor, but fuck him if he can label it as anything else). It’s a kind of cake that Iruka’s had before, that Kakashi _knows_ he likes, and this specific cake is from Iruka’s favorite bakery, and so Kakashi is somewhat dismayed that its reception initially begins with Iruka tracing small unhappy patterns into the frosting with his fork.

But it is not like Iruka to be passive aggressive, or to expect Kakashi to make an inference about the cause of his distress-- most likely, he doesn’t realize he’s projecting ‘distress’ at all-- so Kakashi gives him a gentle moment of silence before a soft verbal nudge, “Is there something other the cake’s decorations bothering you?”

Iruka starts-- he’d been fussing with the frosting without thinking-- and looks a little ashamed of himself. “Sorry, Kakashi,” he says, and ignores Kakashi physically waving away the apology, “I was just- urgh.” He puts the fork down and covers his eyes with his palms, pressing with frustration. The fears come tumbling out of him, then: “I know I’m not to ask you-- that it’s probably against The Rules-- but I wish I knew what happened in _that meeting_ specifically _._ ” _Which_ meeting isn't spoken, and it doesn’t need to be, because they both know that it refers to the moment of Naruto’s exile. “All I know is what Anko told me-- that he needs to accomplish a series of dangerous feats before he can come back again, the kind of challenge that we can’t handle from the village and the humans can’t handle on their own-- and if there’s one thing that we’ve figured out being here, it’s that humans really _can_ take care of most shit on their own, so I don’t even _want_ to imagine what that means..”

Iruka trails off, and Kakashi knows the shape of this kind of venting-- there _are_ legitimately knowledges between them that cannot be shared (though, given their respective positions in Konoha’s hierarchy, such things number relatively few). This, though-- this is not one of those things, and for a long second Kakashi flounders in the misunderstanding, trying to find the error in previously connected thoughts. He thought he’d made it clear to Iruka that Naruto’s exile had been as much as surprise to him--

And then he sees the crux of the misunderstanding: it’s not necessarily obvious that he ever left the room-- he could’ve been surprised by Hiruzen’s decision when he’d heard it said to naruto directly. Anxious to resolve the ambiguity, he leaps verbally before his brain finishes with everything else Iruka has just divulged. “I wasn’t there.” Kakashi says, inelegant and fast, and earns a confused and somewhat wary look from Iruka, who’s not sure if this is the sort of breathless confession that will result in days of short temper and hurt. He continues: “I mean at the meeting. Hiruzen had me leave the room, when he called Naruto in. Only Raven-” he stumbles a second, his hindbrain disruptively connecting a dot without him, “Only Raven was actually in the room with them. I was too close, emotionally. To you.” And to Naruto, but to verbalize that still feels like he’s overstepping his bounds, claiming space in a parental relationship that he’s still not entirely sure he’s welcome to, space that Iruka holds dear. “I heard it secondhand.”

Kakashi watches a complicated series of emotions cross Iruka’s face; it’s a match for a complicated series of thoughts whistling through the back of his head, because he _does_ know something Iruka doesn’t about that whole exchange-- he knows who Raven is. Raven, who was there in the meeting, who is Hiruzen’s Left Hand just as Kakashi is his Right, who is the reckless and raucous thought to Kakashi’s cold and calculating observational memory.

Raven, who is Anko.

Which means, of course, that Iruka’s misapprehensions about Naruto’s mission aren’t necessarily _baseless--_ they're not the stuff of wild speculation and rumormongering that can be so easily dismissed, the way Kakashi’d thought-- but they aren't necessarily _accurate_ either, at least not in any way that can be considered straightforward. (Anko never lies deliberately, not about things that are important or to people that she classifies by that term, and Kakashi trusts her enough not to question the breach of protocol that was informing Iruka personally-- he feels privately grateful for it-- but she tends to let her excitement get away with her, and to deliberately use that tendency to obfuscate delicate information. Her knowledge is always _good_ , but never direct.)

He’ll have to spend some time with that revelation later.

But right now, he is spending time with his partner, whose expression has settled on ‘thoughtful’ and ‘slightly worried’. Iruka sighs deeply, letting his shoulders relax as if the sigh has carried with it more tension than just what was generated by this conversation. “That’s-- kind of a relief actually,” he admits, and gives Kakashi a wan half-smile, “I didn’t like thinking you knew and had kept it from me. Even if you _had to.”_ He’s the one who reaches out for Kakashi’s hand this time, squeezing gloved fingers. “I hope we find him soon,” Iruka says with another sigh, and then actually takes a bite of the cake.

It’s good cake.

“For what it’s worth,” Kakashi tells him, voice low--as if there is anyone around to hear them, as if this needs to be kept secret even here-- “If it was about Naruto, I _would_ tell you.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are three remaining sections of this story (total is I want to say ~9k?) . I'm probably going to post either 2 or all 3 of them together, which means there's only 1-2 more chapters of this forthcoming.

When Kakashi and Iruka finally do catch up to Naruto, it’s as queerly understated as every other aspect of their current epiphanous incarnation, defined more by quotidian warmth than ostentatious drama.

Iruka has been trying, with increasing desperation, to cast around through the human world with every ability he has-- not a small feat, for a being whose Auspices include liminality, transitions, and an especially protean flavor of magic-- but there’s too much noise, too much static generated by the chaotic ephemera of urban human lives, and even Naruto’s _gleam_ gets lost in all that quivering brightness.

Despite the tyrannical pragmatism of that logic, Iruka still receives each near miss as a scrape of failure-- another harsh and abrasive reminder of his corporeal limitations, that there is no mortal shape capable of demarcating the everything that he is (and this, too, is something about Iruka that Kakashi admires and adores: that he is unconstrained and indescribable, despite the incidental friction that occasionally follows those features.)

It’s the dogs that ultimately find Naruto; Kakashi is grateful twice: first for the news, and second for the way that it calms a patch of tumultuous fear and pain inside Iruka that Kakashi can neither entirely heal nor even reach, the one that’s all Parent looking for their Exiled Son.

“Boss! Iruka! We’ve found him!” The statement is more bark than words, already hard to parse for its formation on an excitable canine tongue, and further obscured by the sound of multiple canine feet scrambling rapidly down the hallway towards the estate’s courtyard and portico. The voice belongs to Biscuit, _probably_ \-- it’s hard to say, because he and Shiba and Akino more or less fall through the threshold at about the same time, beside themselves at the chance to deliver good news to two of their favorite people.

“Bull and Pakkun are with him!” This time the speaker is definitely Shiba, recognizable even with Akino speaking over him to contribute, “We told him that on no circumstances is he to go wandering off again!!”

Kakashi doesn’t bother to correct the idiom, because Iruka’s already rocketing up to his feet in excitement. “Thank you,” he says to the dogs, sincerely (Iruka is always polite to them, always means what he says to them) “Please lead the way.”

The ninken bring them to a modest little park just off a nearby residential neighborhood called Nimea Court--it’s the type of urban green-space known only to locals, maintained with love as much as pride, and surprisingly hard to find; Naruto is a spot of bright orange on a worn little bench, Bull’s dark bulk sprawled comfortably at his feet and Pakkun a fawn bundle beside him. Kakashi expects them to close the distance quickly, but Iruka slows as they near, expression suddenly naked with nervous hesitation as the dogs run ahead-- it’s a resurgence of that earlier baseless fear; Iruka is momentarily uncertain if Naruto even _wants_ them here, will even accept their help as he works to undo his exile.

Kakashi leans over, puts a warm hand on his lover’s shoulder-- there isn’t chance for much else, though, because the dogs aren’t subtle in their partial pack reunion, so the kid catches sight of them and jumps up to close the distance-- Naruto has never even met the concept of hesitation. Iruka’s flicker of fear is thus quickly assuaged by Naruto’s open and emphatic _relief_ at seeing his adopted parent again-- his adopted _parents_ again, Kakashi realizes with a warm little jolt, as he’s pulled into the hug and greeted with nearly the same level of enthusiasm that Naruto shows Iruka.

Welcome or not, Kakashi is easily overwhelmed by the intensity of feeling in these displays-- prior to Iruka, anything this soft and warm had been nearly alien to his experience-- but his family _knows_ this about him ( _knows him)_ already; nobody makes a fuss when he gently disengages from the tangle of happily wriggling limbs both human and canine, and puts enough distance between them that he can keep one wary eye on their surroundings and the other on his people.

Pakkun joins him a moment later-- the leader of his ninken pack, who has been with him the longest (since they were both mortal, so long ago), who knows him best and is most like him in personality. The pug addresses him in the gritty acerbic voice better suited to his position than his size. “Can you sense it, boss?”

And that’s not really an auspicious statement, because they’re assuming that Naruto is here to complete one of the Tasks-- which means that the dangerous object of said task has to besomewhere nearby. But Kakashi can’t sense it, and he’s been trying since they arrived-- there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly big and dangerous and terrifying around, certainly nothing that would pose a threat to any immortal, even one still within the indistinct boundaries of timeless youth like Naruto.

Kakashi casts out around the little park again, searching for whatever Pakkun is noting-- sensing has always been more Iruka’s forte than his, though, and he _still_ doesn’t feel anything big-- _maybe_ there’s a little flicker of something to the west, but so minor as to be beneath notice-- 

Kakashi doesn’t actually get a chance to answer Pakkun’s question, though, because Naruto joins them a second later and there’s a hint of sullen scowl on his face, just blunting the edges of his radiant joy at seeing them again-- “It’s not a lion.”Naruto tells Kakashi, like that’s supposed to mean something to him.

It doesn’t, though. “What’s not a lion?” Kakashi asks, catching Iruka’s eye but finding no answers there; Iruka also lacks context for this particular statement.

Naruto waves a hand, glaring in the westward direction of the little nagging feeling that Kakashi can still sense. “Raven said this task was supposed to have a lion and I have to defeat it. But it’s not a lion, it’s just a cat!”

“It’s a construct, actually.” Pakkun responds, flatly-- this is an argument he and Naruto have had before, were probably in the middle of having when Kakashi and Iruka finally made their appearance.

“It’s shaped like a cat.” Naruto objects, and both Kakashi and Iruka look closely at the place towards which Naruto keeps gesturing. Sure enough, there _is_ a cat-- or something roughly cat shaped-- in the distance. It’s about twice the size of an ordinary cat, all densely striped orange fluff and muscle, but with an extra pair of legs and a few too many eyes to be strictly feline; it’s doing nothing remarkable, just napping on a tree branch, easy to miss both because it blends well with bark and foliage, and because it’s casting a slight atmosphere of misdirection around itself-- whatever it is, it doesn’t want to be found. “It acts like a cat. It doesn’t seem like it’s doing anything dangerous. I know it’s supposed to be impervious to weapons and hard to catch or whatever, but I don’t want to hurt something that’s minding its own business!” Naruto continues, slightly indignant, “ And it’s _just a cat,_ not a _lion_ , so I don’t even know why this is a Task in the first place? What glory is there in hurting an innocent animal?” Naruto points at Pakkun to cut him off, as the pug opens his mouth to offer another correction, “ _Even_ a constructed animal.”

The argument continues with the performative rotation of something that’s been passing between Naruto and the Ninken all morning; Iruka and Kakashi pay only half attention-- they’re mapping the new data against information that Naruto has never had access to-- this time, when their eyes meet, they do share confirmation across that silent line of communication sometimes developed between lovers.

Kakashi, forever strategic and calculating, directs his question to Pakkun: “Whose construct? Who made it?”

“Unknown, boss.” The pug answers, rolling his shoulders, a subconscious gesture of discomfort with how well the maker has hidden their signature (a sentiment Kakashi shares).

“But you admit it’s not a threat.” Naruto says, unwilling to give ground on this topic, genuinely upset that the task is so far from anything he’d been expecting to face (from what _any of them_ had been expecting him to face.) 

“For now.” responds Pakkun, reluctant and frustrated, “To all appearances. But things aren’t always what they appear to be.”

It’s Iruka who presents the solution: “They’re not, that’s true.” he responds, “And there’s more than one way to defeat something. You said the lion you’re here for is slippery?”

The question’s directed at Naruto, but he catches Kakashi’s eye again; “Raven tends to talk in riddles,” Kakashi confirms obliquely (still always so careful with the release of secret information, even to family).

Naruto takes a second to pick up Iruka’s implication, but the realization chases away the shadow of sour disappointment that’s been flickering across his face. “We can catch it! That’s a defeat, for it! And a victory for us.” He turns a triumphant scowl on Pakkun, and says “And then we can take it home to watch it, so it can’t get into any trouble.” (This is something about _Naruto_ that Kakashi loves and admires-- something Iruka shares with his adopted son-- neither will give ground on this kind of ethical issue. Naruto won’t hurt anything that’s harmless, even something popularly considered a dangerous abomination-- Naruto knows well what it means, to be called such things.)

Pakkun sighs deeply; Kakashi hasn’t yet chosen a side in this argument, but Iruka and Naruto are both trending against the pug, and Pakkun knows when to react to a shift in the wind. “Fine,” he sighs heavily, annoyance lost in the wrinkles of his face, and then grumbles: “At least it’ll be away from nosey _human_ eyes.”

Thus decided, the chaos of catching the ‘lion’ proceeds apace; it’s Naruto’s show, with Iruka and Kakashi filling supportive roles. The cat _doesn’t want_ to be caught, and it is indeed slippery-- wiley enough to explain why those High Up On The Mountain, with all their tremendous power, would need to send an earthly intercessor on their behalf. Only by means of Naruto’s proficiency with making multiple aether copies of himself and Iruka’s tendency towards very clever applications of barrier seals do they manage to capture the creature, spitting and angry to have been tricked, and thus ‘defeat’ the terrible ‘lion’ of Nimea Court.

(And that’s also how Kakashi’s ancestral estate acquires two new residents-- automatically, because question or confirmation are unnecessary, because _of course_ Naruto is welcome there: wherever Kakashi and Iruka stay will always be a home to him, a fact that contributes to Kakashi’s sense of rightness with the world.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually know if the phrase "easter egg" has any salience with a fic like this, given how i'm using the mythology that I'm referencing as a source for this AU? BUT. just in case it does--
> 
> shout out to the inspiration for one such easter egg, HazelBeka, who is generally excellent, a fabulous and very kind person, and specifically a fabulous writer with some great ideas for multiple clever applications of barrier seals. C:


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second to last chapter-- ngl, it's partially cuz i like the number 7 >>  
> last bit to be posted today, as soon as its done.
> 
> potential content warning here-- i use 'it' as a pronoun through part of this for an animal OC. "it" as a pronoun does _not_ carry a negative valance (that is my preferred pronoun, though i don't ask people to use it)

Naruto names the cat-construct Nimea, and it quickly assumes the position of favored pet and familiar-- not quite a summons, but only because it’s technically made of different spirit-flesh, and is therefore subject to different constraints, than something like the ninken. Kakashi neither expects nor understands Nimea’s embrace of its new role-- the creature is _obviously_ sapient, despite its reluctance to speak in human tongues, and it knows that Kakashi has altered the estate’s wards to prevent it from leaving-- that it’s technically imprisoned here. (Though, to be fair, Nimea _does_ hold a grudge against Kakashi specifically-- it just seems willing to absolve both Naruto and Iruka of any responsibility for its captivity, and has grown especially attached to Naruto, as if the boy were its maker.)

Kakashi has _decided_ to be grateful that the (technically-not-)cat’s acclimatization has gone relatively well, for all that he and Pakkun remain wary about its motivations. (He is also privately grateful that it prefers to be around Naruto, because the bedroom would be a much less relaxing place with it’s golden many-eyed glower fixed in his direction all night.)

He’s not the only one who reflects on the situation, either; he and Iruka are laying in bed together, one night shortly after it’s begun to establish its rapport with Naruto, languid and satiated and letting their minds wander wherever they please. Iruka’s in Kakashi’s arms, upper torso pressed against Kakashi’s side and chest, running his hand absently through the soft pale hairs that are scattered there, opposite the direction of their growth-- it shouldn’t be relaxing, but it very much is, and Kakashi basks with half-closed eyes.

“Do you think all of this is okay?” Iruka asks; the topic is serious, but neither of them are on-edge, sure and secure in the trust that they share.

“Mmm?” Kakashi asks, a wordless request for specification, and then, through a yawn, adds his answer in the direction his own thoughts have been trending, “The cat construct hasn’t done anything yet,” slightly more coherently, he adds, “and it doesn’t seem like it’s about to?”

Iruka shakes his head without lifting it, a soft motion that’s half nuzzle into the dip between Kakashi’s shoulder and collarbone. “I’m not so worried about Nimea,” Iruka says, with the same reflexive confidence in his intuition that brought them Down The Mountain in the first place. “I don’t think it’s anything but what it appears to be now, whyever it was originally made.”

Iruka would be the one to know, Kakashi thinks, and gently pulls him that much closer, so that the other rolls to lay across his chest more properly. “I mean that--” Iruka starts to say, and then breaks off slightly, redirects his thoughts so that they find the appropriate words more easily, “Should we be helping him at all? Naruto I mean.” Iruka pushes himself up enough to look into Kakashi’s face, so that Kakashi can see his uncertainty and concern-- and his determination. “Not that I intend to stop,” Iruka clarifies (unnecessarily; Kakashi knows this already, would expect nothing else) “But if it’s against some of the, you know, Rules.” he gestures vaguely upwards, “then I’m just gonna have to be really clever about it.”

There is part of Kakashi that would love to see Iruka being clever about it-- the part of Kakashi that takes fierce pride in everything that Iruka is, that loves to see Iruka doing what he does best, that enjoys the vicarious thrill of watching Iruka exercise his skills to the point of divine _technê--_ but this situation doesn’t require such carefulness, so Kakashi shakes his head. “I would never discourage you from being clever,” Kakashi almost hums, low and momentarily flirtatious-- a promise for later-- but then returns to a more normal tone for the rest, “But no, it’s not against any Rules. It’s kind of traditional, actually. Naruto’s a Hero with a set of Tasks to complete; he’s allowed to benefit from the help of an immortal’s Patronage.”

A look of alarm crosses Iruka’s face, and Kakashi curses internally; he forgets, sometimes, how relatively ‘young’ Iruka is to immortal reckoning-- age is weird for their kind; _technically speaking_ , Naruto has existed far longer than Iruka has-- Kakashi forgets that Iruka hasn’t actually _done this_ before. “Hero? But Heroes are mortals.” Iruka repeats, “ _Is_ Naruto’s mortality _actually_ temporary? Like ours?”

Kakashi rubs his hand up and down Iruka’s back, long calming strokes meant as partial apology. “It is, don’t worry. Heroes _tend_ to be mortals, but that’s probably because mortals _tend_ to call on us more than we call on each other.” Kakashi gives an abortive half-shrug, “but it’s not that they _must_ be mortal. So Naruto’s a Hero and you’re his Patron.”

Mollified but still slightly anxious, Iruka lays back down, accepting the comfort his lover is offering. He speaks his next question directly into Kakashi’s chest, as if he’s slightly embarrassed to ask it: “Have you ever done this before? Been this kind of support.”

Kakashi chuckles, and taps what small part of his chest that is not currently occupied by his lover. “War and strategy. Yes, I have done this many times.” He kisses the top of Iruka’s head, which is all he can reach, “But never so well-matched as you and Naruto.” He lets the pride he feels for his family suffuse his voice, “The two of you together are a force of nature.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C'eST FINI!  
> and i'm pretty sure i made deadline, too-- 10 days. C:  
> ANYWAY ENBY HERE IT IS, i tried v hard to fill all ur requests. 
> 
> and now, victory raman, after which i'll come by and fill in the author's notes properly RIP

On the mountain, one eats for pleasure rather than need; Kakashi has always enjoyed cooking, but largely as a hobby-- he is surprised at how little he resents its necessity, now that they’re temporarily mortal. If anything, it’s an opportunity for Kakashi to have fun and _play_ with something technical that doesn’t involve wartime or weaponry or killing people. (It’s nice, a small joy he never expected.)

The days have developed a gentle rhythm, marked by the comfortable repetition of everyday events; this one is perfectly ordinary, like all the rest, and that much more beautiful for its unremarkability.Iruka and Naruto are seated at a long low table in the kitchen, pouring over Naruto’s messy notes and plans, Nemea unhelpfully stretched across half of them, while Kakashi commits science against some eggplants along the counters by the stove. The ninken have placed themselves strategically across the room, congregating in places where they’ll be best positioned to snatch any unattended food, which they claim is training (and might actually be, because none of them really _like_ eggplant, but they’re still waiting for any opportunity to steal scraps). Kakashi’s attention is split: most of it is on his culinary experimentation (he is _trying_ to get that soft squish-crunch of macarons into the dish as some kind of shell around each sliver of eggplant, but eggplant is bland enough to need a sauce, and the wetness from said sauce is proving a little problematic); half his attention is simultaneously tracking the conversation happening around the table.

“-- many heads,” he catches Iruka saying, sounding exasperated. “But those kinds of monsters haven’t been active in years-- I would sense it, if they were. You’re sure that this is the same--”

“Yeah, this is how Raven said it, they made me copy down all the clues exactly before I left for the first gate.” Naruto replies in a grumble, stabbing at the implicated scrap of paper with a finger, “But Raven also said Nemea was a lion, and Nemea’s not even technically a cat--”

“Bees?” Iruka offers, slightly plaintive as his attempts at an answer to this impromptu riddle remain frustratingly inadequate. “A swarm of bees?”

“I hope not,” Naruto says with shudder, “I hate bees.”

Iruka sighs, rescues the scrap from Naruto’s frustrated gesturing, and squints so as to decipher Naruto’s frenetic handwriting. “Many heads - hard to kill - grows another for every that’s severed-- ”

“Information.” Kakashi answers absently, and then curses as he accidentally gets some yolk into the egg whites he’s trying to separate. 

There’s silence behind him, and he pauses on the way to reach for another egg, glancing at the table. Iruka is looking at him speculatively, following his logic, and Naruto is doing his ‘thinking hard’ frown as he pulls his thoughts into this different track.

“Information.” Kakashi repeats, a little more tentatively, and then clarifies. “Rumors. They’re impossible to control, and trying to constrain them tends to make them spread farther. And they definitely have too many heads. In _a lot_ of ways.” Kakashi thinks of Anko, Raven, who treats that particularly mutable chaos like it’s an artist’s medium, weaving information webs so kaleidoscopically intricate that he doubts he’ll ever really know whether they’re _truly_ built intentionally, or if they just _happen_ , serendipitously.

As a being frequently invoked to assist in battle, Kakashi makes an effort to keep his reflexes sharp, which is the only reason he manages to get the egg safely back into its container before Naruto crashes against him in a buoyant hug-tackle.

\--

“Information/Rumor” is a lead, but a capricious one-- even with all of the considerable energy and resources of his family behind him, there’s only so much that Naruto can do to direct his own progress. Information has its own pace, delicate and shy, and too much restive handling tends to backfire dramatically. Kakashi helps where he can, but what that usually means is counseling patience and providing comfort when necessary-- for once, he is not leading this mission: Naruto heads the action, and Iruka’s supports in Patronage.

Iruka, Kakashi privately thinks, makes an excellent Patron-- he teaches as much as he assists directly, showing Naruto things that the boy would otherwise miss, and it’s as satisfying to watch as Kakashi thought it would be.

The only thing Kakashi _doesn’t_ like is how useless he himself sometimes feels. He often wishes that, while incarnated, he could consult with Anko-- but that much actually _is_ beyond his reach. If Anko wants to get in touch, she will, but only on her own terms and in her own time-- she is a force of nature and is subject to no laws but her own, particularly as Raven.

So he counsels himself towards patience, too, tells himself to let things happen as they will, and perfects his experimental eggplants in the meantime.

When he _finally_ gets the eggplants to work-- physically, and without (much) supernatural cheating-- they go over about as well as he expects them to. “This shouldn’t exist.” Naruto declares, after eating one and swearing off the rest. “Also, vegetables are gross.” Having so proselytized, he wanders to the pantry and rummages around for something salty and processed to eat, because Naruto is also a force of nature, and one about as predictable as the seasons.

Iruka likes them, but he’s amused by Naruto’s reaction. “They really _are_ weird.” Iruka says, (though, Kakashi notes, with some small proprietary pleasure, he’s still eating them like snacks, and not as if they’re an obligation.) “Good, but weird.” His voice is slightly distracted, half his mind elsewhere, always turning over every little thing to see if new angles yield possible new directions towards their goals.

Kakashi feels no particular need to respond verbally; all is as it should be, so he just watches the shape of familiar thoughts crossing Iruka’s face. (Kakashi wishes he knew what it was to be present in Iruka’s mind, to watch all those thoughts go by- if it’s a fraction as beautiful to see Iruka wear them, he thinks he’d probably never look away.)

“If something’s possible,” Iruka says slowly, as if indicating a specific fragmentary idea whose corners he has already carefully examined, but which that examination remains thoroughly unsatisfying, “then it’s probably not against the Rules.”

Kakashi is intrigued by this line of questioning; he gives a half-shrug, “I’m not a scholar,” he hedges (because he’s not and therefore he draws his answer only from his own memories and experience, and that’s an important thing to note in situations like this) “but that tends to be true, yes.”

Iruka nods, is silent a second longer, and then his eyebrows take that slight dip that mean ‘a decision has been reached’. He looks over at Naruto, raising his voice enough to be heard within the pantry: “Hey Naruto, do you remember the exact phrasing, from when you were sent down here?” Surprise and then victoriousness brighten Iruka’s features, flash microexpressions that Kakashi only sees because he’s watching for them, and only knows how to read because of the care with which they’ve built their relationship together. Iruka is surprised that he can get the question out, _literally_ put it to words-- it was the _asking_ he’d thought prohibited.

Naruto misses the import of that small triumph; he emerges from the pantry with some crinkly packages of desiccated instant raman, flailing an elbow at Iruka as if to wave away the question with full hands.There’s a snack cake in his mouth, so his words are muffled when he says, “You’ve seen the paper, wrote’m down there.”

“No, not those--” Iruka clarifies, “do you remember what the _Hokage_ said to you, when he exiled you?”

Naruto dumps what he’s scavenged on the counter, and proceeds to rifle through Kakashi’s semi-organized kitchen system like a small hurricane, leaving bedlam in his wake. “Um,” Naruto responds, as he sifts through his memories in roughly the same fashion, “um. No, didn’t write that down. He said there was some stuff down in the mortal plane that he couldn’t do, so he was gonna exile me there-- here, i guess-- and that I’d have to take care of it to come back.” Naruto shrugs, pulling out what few things he does remember alongside a random assortment of cookware that only sort-of matches the foodstuffs dragged from the pantry. “He said it was really important that the humans don’t know I'm here-- that we’re here, i guess.” This said with a glance to the two adults, “um. That the tasks were important, and that there wasn’t a time limit. He said it was really important that I learn, cuz there’s not much more I can be taught up On The Mountain. Um. Oh! He said I was in the line for Hokage!!” Naruto is excited, because this is something he’s been privately declaring for years, and while Kakashi has known the truth of this for nearly as long (Hiruzen is not called far-seeing for nothing, and Kakashi has always enjoyed access to certain of his insights, as his Hound), that doesn’t mean most residents of The Mountain take Naruto’s declarations seriously-- Naruto is more than used to being dismissed. But neither parent counters this assertion now, of course, only motions wordless agreement, and this makes Naruto all the more pleased with himself, as he turns back to his lunch and opens the raman with enough exuberance to get fragments of dry noodle on every nearby surface. “But he kinda lost track of things a little,” Naruto adds, distracted, “cuz then he said that this mission was important to teach the next Hokage. His timelines are screwy.” Naruto shrugs, supremely unconcerned about such momentous implications regarding his future.

Iruka and Kakashi share a significant look-- for as dispassionate as Naruto is, there’s a _lot_ there; they let the information spread out across them slowly, because it’s going to take _time_ to process all of that.

If nothing else, it is at least clear why Naruto hasn’t been as upset about the exile as they’d anticipated-- as Iruka has been, and still is-- it was a decision based on form, not substance. (Interestingly, Kakashi can see tension in Iruka’s spine and jaw, can see the way way Iruka broadcasts what he feels as he receives and internalizes the new data: he doesn’t approve of the decision, even if it’s not quite the same flavor of betrayal he’d assumed it to be, initially-- that they’d both assumed it to be.)

Iruka stays silent for a long moment, lost in thought, before visibly redirecting himself and shoving all that processing to the back of his mind, where it can occur while Iruka continues to pursue the original line of inquiry; he is quiet long enough that Naruto starts slightly, when Iruka does finally ask him another question. “Did the Hokage say anything about the tasks? Or this task? What kind of information he was sending you for?”

Naruto shakes his head, and answers over the tinny sound water filling a saucepan. “Nope. That was all Raven. The Hokage just said to take all the time I needed.”

Iruka sighs-- a frustrated little noise-- and leans against Kakashi, pushing their chairs closer together, and closes his eyes. “Well, we’ve got plenty of that.” he mutters in undertone, for Kakashi’s ears only. “Just no answers.”

Kakashi understands the frustration and the worry-- he remembers well how hard it is to be patient when you’re the one trailing the Hero -- so he wraps the arm closest to Iruka around the other’s torso, leaning across the slight distance between them to rest his chin gently on his lover’s hair. “You have up to all of it.” Kakashi responds, quietly but confidently, “But neither of you will need that long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading
> 
> I am not on tumblr or twitter; my only social is [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/00101010), which has some other ways to contact me if you feel so inclined
> 
> \- booleanWildcard / 00101010 / * / asterisk / 42 / wildcardOperator 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading
> 
> I am not on tumblr or twitter; my only social is [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/00101010), which has some other ways to contact me if you feel so inclined
> 
> \- booleanWildcard / 00101010 / * / asterisk / 42 / wildcardOperator 


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